Israel has demanded an apology from Russia after Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, claimed that Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins, Reuters reports. The Middle Eastern nation has further accused Lavrov of being anti-Semitic and disregarding the history of the Holocaust.
Lavrov’s anti-Semitic comments were supposedly intended to be a justification for his country’s continued attack on neighboring Ukraine which the Russian government claims it is doing in order to “deNazify” the country.
“Such lies are intended to accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrific crimes in history that were committed against them,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement to the media. “The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people for political purposes must stop immediately,” he added.
The controversy began while Lavrov was being interviewed by an Italian TV channel on Russia’s invasion and war with Ukraine. During the interview, Lavrov was asked how Russia needed to “deNazify” Ukraine when its own president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.
“When they say ‘What sort of nazification is this if we are Jews,’ well I think that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing,” Lavrov said in response according to the Express Tribune. “For a long time now we’ve been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves,” he added.
The basis for these claims lies in long-heralded speculation that Hitler’s grandfather may have been Jewish. Reuters as well as other historians confirm, however, that the claims are simply false due to the lack of evidence supporting the notion.
The comments were immediately denounced by several high-profile Israelis and have strained already fractured relations between Russia and Israel for the future. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, whose own grandfather died during the Holocaust, demanded an apology from Lavrov calling the latter’s comments “the basest level of racism,” Reuters reports.
“The Ukrainians aren’t Nazis. Only the Nazis were Nazis and only they dealt with the systematic destruction of the Jewish people,” said Lapid.
Lavrov’s comments have not made a strong case for Russia to amend its strained relations with Israel. Although at first hesitant to comment on the conflict, Israel has recently expressed support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. Last month, Reuters reports that Israel joined other countries in denouncing Russia’s attacks and even called its tactics war crimes. While Israel has not yet officially enforced sanctions on Russian oligarchs, Russia nor its officials have yet to convince the country to do otherwise with such comments.
Overall, Lavrov’s comment comes as yet another desperate attempt to justify the innumerable war crimes Russia has committed throughout its invasion of Ukraine. Calling Hitler Jewish is essentially an ignorant claim of false history as well as a blatant disregard for the relationship between Israel and Russia. Israel should take those anti-Semitic comments as they are and further entrench its support for Ukraine by sanctioning Russian oligarchs and joining the rest of the international community in severing ties with the country.
